To the naysayers- Have a little more faith This should seriously take you less than 10 minutes. Cut the tabs, slide the fan in: It's practically a 1 step mod since sliding a fan in is easier than screwing it in anyways.And of course if you haven't rotated your heatsink, add that in. Much easier and more effective than modding the case, and it also leaves the case in it's original, unblemished condition.

**If you have a Dremel: This should take you about 60 seconds: The plastic cuts fast by hand, I imagine a dremel blade would slice through it like butter.

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This is a guide to installing NZXT's own fans (200mmx30mm) into the side panel of the NZXT Phantom Full Tower Enthusiast Case.UNDERSTAND THAT YOU MAY DESTROY THE FAN'S MOUNTING TABS IF YOU ARE NOT CAREFUL- YOU ASSUME ALL RESPONSIBILITY FOR ATTEMPTING THE STEPS IN THIS GUIDE**Note- If you cannot fit your tower heatsink vertically (ie- large RAM DIMMs prevent you from rotating heatsink), you may have to trim an extra millimeter off the tab, as the copper heatpipes push against the center backplate of the fan in horizontal allighnment. I don't mean the blades, I mean the base for the motor. I just preffered to use the seam as a guideline to make this guide easier to explain in an exact fashion.---------------------------Tools required: A saw blade (File and pliers are entirely optional and not necessary: You can snap tabs off with fingers: I'm just finicky about mine.)

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Step 1:Cut through the mounting tabs, try to align the cut just outside of the "seam" seen in pictures below, and cut about 1/16" further into the fan itself: The extra 1/16' inch groove will allow the fan to fit into the tabs otherwise it's a hair too wide.

Step 2:Break off the INTERIOR half of the tab that is nearest the "middle" of the fan- Pliers are the safest method: But fingers or "tilting" the saw blade also work.

Step 3:Slide the fan between mesh grating and metal plating of side panel. If you cut it properly, the pressure alone holds it firmly without vibration.**Slide it in the whole way: lined up with screw holes. The image is only partially inserted to show the idea of sliding it in.

Step 4:[size="4"]Align your Hyper 212+ vertically.

That's it: You're done!

Now wasn't that simple? You're welcome

Personally, I broke one tab: So I have 3 tabs holding it in place: Still works without vibration or noise, and is held firmly in place.

Here's the finished project:

Video proof of concept (to show how safe it is, sorry for bad quality):http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRRMeZuAMGE

And yes, the audio is entirely out of sync. Nothing I can do about it, my camera's recording medium is garbage.

Ignore the "power fan speed 0 rpm warning" in the screenshot lol. That's AI Suite saying I have no fan plugged into the motherboard: Because everything is routed through the fan controller in the case.

Btw, to prove it's actually spinning and not rattling, I'm linking a video I recently took of my rig in general: In which I stick the camera inside the computer itself:

Skip to 2:00 if you just want to see inside the computer while it's running (relevant to this mod) the rest is just a general video of the rig itself (with the GTS 250, recently RMAd the 560 Ti for replacement.)

117 views and not a single nice guide? This is the only existing guide to install the 30mm thick NZXT fans without modding the case, and the easiest guide either way. How come no one seems to have any positive input?

117 views and not a single nice guide? This is the only existing guide to install the 30mm thick NZXT fans without modding the case, and the easiest guide either way. How come no one seems to have any positive input?

.....It's been like 5 hours. Calm down.

I might need to try this, but I'm not sure as my heatsink is taller than the 212+.

CPU: (Intel)q9450@3.36GHz|1.4vPower Supply: (Antec)BP550|550wGFX Card: (PNY)GTX 460|800-1600-4000 biggest GTX 460 dud OCerMotherboard: (Gigabyte)P35-DS3R |P35|Memory: (Mushkin) Redline 2x2GB DDR2 1000|1050MHz 5-5-5-12|Ayn Rand is the author for people who want to act like complete douche-bags, but don't have the balls to just admit that they are douche-bags."There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."

Good job
Sadly it won't work for someone who has coolers like the NH-D14. Even the HAVIK 140 wouldn't fit with the side 200mm (c'mon NZXT! You designed both the coolers and case but they're incompatible!?)

"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein

Good job Sadly it won't work for someone who has coolers like the NH-D14. Even the HAVIK 140 wouldn't fit with the side 200mm (c'mon NZXT! You designed both the coolers and case but they're incompatible!?)

If they're 158.5mm or shorter: Then it should work.

Then again I didn't look up their specs, so I don't know how tall they are, but that's the Hyper 212+'s height.

I squeezed out an extra mm just a minute ago: Noticed I didn't have all 4 sides tucked, just 3 of them. So I tucked the 4th tab (or small piece of a tab, it was the broken one) in and it gave me a tiny increase in space between my heatsink and the fan. Also recently wired in the LED on/off buttons, because it's too bright to game with at night. Now the following lights toggle each with their own little switch:

Power Supply LED (was built in, just wired it up front), all three 200mm fans, and naturally the cold cathodes. Only LED fan that can't be toggled is the front 140mm R4, and the lights on the top of the case itself (fan controller sliders, power indicator, hdd indicator.)So if you guys want a guide on wiring the on/off switches (as it likes to be stupid if you have more than one fan to toggle), let me know. But if I don't hear anyone asking I'll assume we don't need a guide on that.

Good job.Isn't it too risky? I'm pointing out the positioning of the fan and position of heat-pipes.

I've opened up my case about 15 times since then to change other things around, and the fan hasn't hit anything for me. Unless you're riding in a Jeep playing on your Phantom (in which case pics or it didn't happen) I don't think there's anything to worry about: It's a full tower case, I don't foresee the thing rocking about on my desk.